NOM's Gathering Storm

I had actually made a conscious decision not to post this, since it has been reiterated on every other blog in the world, but a Time article brought up an excellent point that I had noticed when I watched the National Organization for Marriage little commercial:

For now, "a rainbow coalition of people of every creed and color are coming together in love." Just not that specific rainbow. Or that kind of love.

Hey, I thought it was funny. Who writes these things anyways?

Oh, and I have to agree with ... who posted it? ... ahhh, yes, my favoritest blogger in the world these days, Bil Browning, about the "controversy" surrounding the actor audition tapes:

It's the entire essence of the advertising campaign that needs to be addressed thoroughly. Concentrating on one minute section of the laundry list of offenses is a sure way to miss an opportunity to advance LGBT rights. After all, that's the big picture.

In short: you're missing the point when you criticize the commercial's audition tapes. Critique their points, not the fact that the actors are, well, actors. (As it says clearly on the screen, note the image from Bilerico below.)

Bil of Bilerico on Chris Smitherman

The outcome of the latest round of blogging has been a growing interaction with national bloggers -- my new favorite is, these days, is Bil Browning over at Bilerico.com. He and I originally just had a Twitter relationship, but now he's slowly becoming one of my blogging BFF's.

As a result, I occasionally send out information or good blog posts that I think would resound well on a national scale, and the Chris Smitherman/Finney issue was one of those. He wrote me back and said, "Just to warn you, I kind of agree with Smitherman."

I'll say, he makes a great point, as always:

As Smitherman says in the audio, "It's not enough to just talk about Martin Luther King."

So I guess this leads me to the logical questions to be asked of of Cincinnati queers: Have you been involved in African-American issues?" What has Equality Cincinnati or other local groups done to work on racial issues? How about any statewide organizations? Any of the national orgs? Maybe some local non-black LGBT activists? Are you there for them?

If you haven't been, are you going to be there in force on April 8 standing with the NAACP as Smitherman asks? I'd bet even money that Chris Finney will be, so if you don't want his voice to be the last one in Smitherman's ear, you'd better learn how to whisper too.

"Shouting" our outrage isn't doing any the community any good.

Working our asses off for "civil rights and social justice" for all people and not just LGBT people is what will turn the tide in our favor. It's not a quick solution, but it is the correct one.

Regarding the question of working with communities of color... I think it's a broader question that could be applied to the national LGBT organizations, as well. It is not exclusive to Cincinnati, or Ohio, or even the Midwest. The whole intersection of race and class bit ... though expounded upon greatly in the literature and academic settings ... has not really trickled down to a great deal of action and unification.

How do we begin that, then? And how do we feel about this issue become so... well, national in a little place like Cincinnati as opposed to some place where we clearly failed because of our own failures to outreach -- like, say, California? Or do we take the opportunity to create that difference and that change which will bring us greater success in one of the last great frontiers of LGBT equality ... the Deep South.

And, in all this, why am I still only talking about LGBT folks?

Far from becoming apologist, I am, as always, pondering my own response and my own take on the situation. I'm sure I'll be posting it in a few days.

CityBeat's blog is investigating Chris Finney again -- hrm. Something to think about. Oh, and an additional piece from CityBeat about who evoked the name of MLKJr in reference to LGBT rights first: Mr. Smitherman himself.

Why Terminators Transport Naked

From Bilerico...

Too funny NOT to repost.

Media Round Up

Picture from the Enquirer Story
So far, I've only hunted down a few bits, but I'll add to this as more become available. Tell me if you see anything else:

• Pre Protest: WCPO Video and Story
• Pre Protest: Enquirer
• Post Protest: Enquirer

Also, check out Bilerico.com -- JereKeys and I guest blogged the build up and the event. Thanks much to Bil for letting us write!!!!

The whole point was to draw attention to the crime, so let's see how far we got with this!!! I'm glad to see that both WCPO and the Enquirer are talking it for what it was -- a hate crime. Media was our goal, and, by golly, I think the Cincinnati organizers did a damn good job.

Random Gay News Round-Up

...well, not really. Just a couple things this morning.

Because I'm a righteous and self-important queer blogger, imagine my enthusiasm when I read the piece in the Washington Post about the growing influence of gay bloggers on the political world. It focuses on the ever fabulous Pam's House Blend, but also mentions some other friends of this blog (including Bilerico):

In the past, someone like Spaulding would have been relegated to the sidelines. She doesn't work for national gay rights organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign or the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. She lives with her partner, Kate, an audiologist, in Durham, far from San Francisco, New York or Washington, where gay activism has been historically based. But now she's helping shape the agenda, one voice in a chorus of sometimes dissonant, sometimes harmonious, often in-your-face voices that is pushing established gay groups and redefining the meaning of grass-roots action in this new media age...

"For me, blogging has been about looking outside my own lens. If it wasn't for reading blogs, for example, I wouldn't know as much as I know now about transgender issues," Spaulding says. "At first I thought, 'I'm not transgender. This is not my issue.' But then you read about it, you make the connections and you realize that, yes, I'm a part of that, too."

It's an interesting article that has highlighted a lot of the stuff that has happened over the past few months amongst gay bloggers -- including the Rick Warren debacle and the JoinTheImpact movement. It's well done, over all.

And just a few things on marriage: the New York Times calls for an actual vote (preferably a vote in the affirmative) for equal marriage in Rhode Island. The same could be said for New York State. Illinois has an equal marriage bill introduced. And financial analysts predict that equal marriage in Maine could bring about $60million to the state's economy for same-sex nuptials. I feel like we're in a race for the first legislatively-passed equal marriage law.

Oh, and the Utah State Senator Buttars thing goes on... the ass. Someone is finally pointing out that the man is a distraction and taking away from real work. The same could be said for the entire legislature who, apparently, hates gays just so much.

Blogger Searches

Groan -- this is totally random, but I'm on the front page if you search Google for "Ohio's 2010 Senatorial Races" and "...Candidates" I think like number 7 or 8 on both. Awesome.

I'm number 4 if you search for "rectal chlamydia." The CDC is number 5.

I mean, take that for what you will.

Quick fun: It's official -- QueerCincinnati.com is linked from one "teh interweb"'s biggest LGBT blogs: The Bilerico Project!!! :-) Very exciting -- thanks to Bil Browning for making it happen!!!! (Next step? Queerty and GoodAsYou -- already on one of my fav blogs, TrevorHoppe.com )

Also, I was looking at the numbers and the drastic drop in daily visitors from 400+ to around 200. Apparently, I've been de-linked from the Aussie site for pictures of Hugh Jackman. Sad. :-( But, on the bright side, if you watch the FEEDJIT, whereas 60% of my old visitors were here for half-naked pictures of Hugh Jackman, now over 90% of my visitors are here for... gasp... actual content. It's an improvement, and I'm okay with it :-).

POLITICS: Major Gay People Not Donating against Prop 8

INMagazine, from LA, has an interesting brief article on people that have yet to donate against Prop 8 (which would, again, illegalize gay marriage in California if passed). For those who aren't paying attention, it's set to fail (and, thus, allow gay marriage) polling 55-41. However, the money hasn't quite started to be used yet.

Here are the notable people who have not donated yet...

-Ellen Degeneres
-Rosie O'Donnell
-Elton John
-Marc Cherry
-Melissa Etheridge

There's more, and a a list of some of the top donors.

And don't forget about Brad Pitt's fabulous huge donation.

Thanks to Bilerico for the referral!

ELECTION 2008: Follow up to Sarah Palin.

Yea, so the reaction is... mixed. Which is distinct from the Biden announcement because no one could say anything bad. Let's jump into the reactions:

Blind Prophecy...

While I admire some of the anti-oil corruption work she’s one since getting elected in Alaska, she couldn’t be further away from me on important social issues without changing her last name to Huckabee.

I really hope Hillary stands frim on her pledge to do everything she can to get Obama elected, because McCain’s choice of Palin couldn’t be more transparent in his desire to steal Hillary supporters away from Obama.

Twitter meme -- Little Known Facts About Sarah Palin... (thanks Kate!!!!) my fav:

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin is a little known fact.

Coldhearted Truth...

Why it was good:

First and foremost... I don't think this was either the best or worst pick he could have made. I know I would have preferred Pawlenty and possibly even Kay Hutchinson. But I know I would have been terribly disappointed with Mitt Romney or Tom Ridge. I considered Palin in that same area as Joe Lieberman... somewhat of a mixed bag.

Why it was bad:

His very first important decision and it is... GHASTLY

I am extremely disapointed.

I hope she has no skeletons in her closet and was vetted properly.

Bilerico (lots of great research):

Indeed, that's probably reason #1 here. But it's pretty dumb, considering that Hillary Clinton's success didn't derive just from the fact that she was a woman, but that she was a strong, intelligent, experienced woman who fought for women's rights and health care for decades. Palin's not. It's a pretty cynical move, but, then again, McCain actually thinks he has a chance among Democratic Hillary supporters.

Personally, I'm guessing this will only highlight McCain's anti-choice record, and the anti-choicers agree.

Election Junkie...

My initial thought was that it would hurt McCain's experience argument, but from a better prospective, McCain's experience didn't go away. As far as executive experience, Palin is in better shape than Obama. So how could Obama even think about trying to raise that argument. He has had one year in the senate, and two years of campaigning.

Queerty...

This soft gay love could complicate matters with staunch social conservatives, but that voting bloc will no doubt appreciate her strident pro-life and gun rights stance. If Palin and McCain can make the benefits issue look like an issue of Democratic ideals, then that could stop any reactionary outrage. Only time will tell how that will play out.

Mixed.

GAY STUFF: Text Message Regarding My Weekend, so far

A brief text from a friend regarding my weekend so far... working on a full post, esp due to the excellent post by Donna Rose over at Bilerico today.

And when I see HRC [in my inbox]...I usually only do two keystrokes...delete and confirm delete.

More to come, off to see Jerry Springer: The Opera today!

ELECTION 2008: A new McCain video about homo's

Thanks to the Bilerico project on this one, via the Stonewall Democrats...



And people (you know who you are) say that he's neutral.

HIV/AIDS: HIVBigDeal.org

Via the Bilerico project, this is the new online HIV prevention series from HIVBigDeal.org.



What is "multivir?" LOL. And a few drinks, I thought, btw, was five or six drinks. Regardless, it's really amusing. It's got some stereotypical shit going on; I mean they are still just pushing lines. There's some good stuff though. I really like the conversation at the coffee house between the two -- "safe sex is a two way street."

But I wonder, though, if every single guy from 25th birthday party will die.

ELECTION 2008: "New low"

Via the Joe. My. God. blog. (his bit here)

Oh Jesus.

And the take on the Bilerico project.

BLOGGING: Two new queer blogs

Added two new blogs to the blog roll:


1) LifeLube.org -- an excellent blog out of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. When I started the AVOC Myspace, this is what I dreamed it would be.






2) The Bilerico Project: Daily Experiment in the LGBTQ -- I have referenced them before. It's an excellent blog.






(Pictures courtesy of the representative blog)